Measure Your Results

The first thing you can do is to measure your progress.

Focus often fades because of lack of feedback. Your brain has a natural desire to know whether or not
you are making progress toward your goals, and it is impossible to know that without getting feedback.
From a practical standpoint, this means that we need to measure our results.
We all have areas of life that we say are important to us, but that we aren’t measuring. That's a shame
because measurement maintains focus and concentration. The things we measure are the things we
improve. It is only through numbers and clear tracking that we have any idea if we are getting better or
worse.
 When I measured how many pushups I did, I got stronger.
 When I tracked my reading habit of 20 pages per day, I read more books.
 When I recorded my values, I began living with more integrity.
The tasks I measured were the ones I remained focused on.
Unfortunately, we often avoid measuring because we are fearful of what the numbers will tell us about
ourselves. The trick is to realize that measuring is not a judgment about who you are, it's just feedback
on where you are.
Measure to discover, to find out, to understand. Measure to get to know yourself better. Measure to see
if you're actually spending time on the things that are important to you. Measure because it will help
you focus on the things that matter and ignore the things that don’t.

Focus on the Process, Not the Event

The second thing you can do to maintain long-term focus is to concentrate on processes, not events. All
too often, we see success as an event that can be achieved and completed.
Here are some common examples:
 Many people see health as an event: “If I just lose 20 pounds, then I’ll be in shape.”
 Many people see entrepreneurship as an event: “If we could get our business featured in the
New York Times, then we’d be set.”
 Many people see art as an event: “If I could just get my work featured in a bigger gallery, then
I’d have the credibility I need.”
Those are just a few of the many ways that we categorize success as a single event. But if you look at
the people who stay focused on their goals, you start to realize that it’s not the events or the results that
make them different. It’s the commitment to the process. They fall in love with the daily practice, not
the individual event.
What’s funny, of course, is that this focus on the process is what will allow you to enjoy the results
anyway.